Network Working Group M. Crawford
Request for Comments: 2467 Fermilab
Obsoletes: 2019 December 1998
Category: Standards Track
Transmission of IPv6 Packets over FDDI Networks
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
1. Introduction
This document specifies the frame format for transmission of IPv6
packets and the method of forming IPv6 link-local addresses and
statelessly autoconfigured addresses on FDDI networks. It also
specifies the content of the Source/Target Link-layer Address option
used in Router Solicitation, Router Advertisement, Neighbor
Solicitation, Neighbor Advertisement and Redirect messages when those
messages are transmitted on an FDDI network.
This document replaces RFC 2019, "Transmission of IPv6 Packets Over
FDDI", which will become historic.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC 2119].
2. Maximum Transmission Unit
FDDI permits a frame length of 4500 octets (9000 symbols), including
at least 22 octets (44 symbols) of Data Link encapsulation when
long-format addresses are used. Subtracting 8 octets of LLC/SNAP
header, this would, in principle, allow the IPv6 [IPV6] packet in the
Information field to be up to 4470 octets. However, it is desirable
to allow for the variable sizes and possible future extensions of the
MAC header and frame status fields. The default MTU size for IPv6
packets on an FDDI network is therefore 4352 octets. This size may
be reduced by a Router Advertisement [DISC] containing an MTU option
Crawford Standards Track [Page 1]RFC 2467 IPv6 over FDDI December 1998
which specifies a smaller MTU, or by manual configuration of each
node. If a Router Advertisement received on an FDDI interface has an
MTU option specifying an MTU larger than 4352, or larger than a
manually configured value, that MTU option may be logged to system
management but must be otherwise ignored.
For purposes of this document, information received from DHCP is
considered "manually configured" and the term FDDI includes CDDI.
3. Frame Format
FDDI provides both synchronous and asynchronous transmission, with
the latter class further subdivided by the use of restricted and
unrestricted tokens. Only asynchronous transmission with
unrestricted tokens is required for FDDI interoperability.
Accordingly, IPv6 packets shall be sent in asynchronous frames using
unrestricted tokens. The robustness principle dictates that nodes
should be able to receive synchronous frames and asynchronous frames
sent using restricted tokens.
IPv6 packets are transmitted in LLC/SNAP frames, using long-format
(48 bit) addresses. The data field contains the IPv6 header and
payload and is followed by the FDDI Frame Check Sequence, Ending
Delimiter, and Frame Status symbols.
Crawford Standards Track [Page 2]RFC 2467 IPv6 over FDDI December 1998
0 1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| FC |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Destination |
+- -+
| FDDI |
+- -+
| Address |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Source |
+- -+
| FDDI |
+- -+
| Address |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| DSAP | SSAP |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| CTL | OUI ... |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +
| ... OUI |